(09) 1830s-1850s: the Bracebridge Memoirs
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In the late 1880s Charles Edward Bracebridge, formerly of Kilsby, sat down to write the memoirs of his early life. He was born in the 1830s - and the tale that he tells of his childhood in Kilsby paints a fascinating and very lively picture of life in Kilsby when Queen Victoria was still a very young woman.
"From my earliest recollection, my Father and Mother used frequently to drive from Leicester to Kilsby, so that I knew very much about Kilsby at that time; and often used to stay for weeks and sometimes for months. ..."
Bracebridge's notes are well written, and very readable - and they cover the exact period at which the railway was being planned and constructed:
"... I was at Kilsby very often at the time when the London and North Western Railway was being made. The Bill for empowering a company to construct a rail-way from London to Birmingham, which received the royal assent in May 1833, and the work soon began.
"I believe at first it was thought of making an open cutting where the tunnel now is, but they did not know what to do with the soil that would come out, so that was abandoned. Then they began the tunnel, and a most wonderful undertaking it was at that time, and a most expensive one. For Kilsby and also the neighbourhood around, it was something to see and remember …"
" ... All about the fields here near the line were huts – some of clay, some of turves covered with boards and turves, others of bricks; stabling, hovels, blacksmiths’ shops and brick-kilns; and as the work proceeded, tramways in different directions. I have spent many an hour about here, watching the men at work."
There were humorous occasions:
"I remember my Father telling me that early one Kilsby Feast Sunday morning, some of the young men of the Village got a Donkey belonging to an old woman of the Village, and tied its legs and got it onto the leads of the roof of the south aisle and made it secure close to the belfry. They then hid and secured all the ladders they could find. As soon as the bells began to ring, the Donkey was frightened and began to make a noise. The Clerk looked about for some time but could not see it ... "At last he saw the Donkey on the Church roof. He immediately ran to Mr George Cowley, being the nearest house and told them. Of course it soon got known in the Village. But how to get the Donkey down again they did not know, for no ladders were to be found for sometime. At last they got the poor Donkey down, and know doubt he was very glad to be on the ground again, but it was never known who helped to get him up." Later parts of the memoirs deal with his teenage years, in which we receive a very detailed account of the upbringing of a young gentleman: "In the spring 1842, my Uncle J.C. Cowley asked me to come to Kilsby and help him with his ewes and lambs, and promised to give me a ewe lamb for doing so. I came and staid with him about six weeks. The next Autumn, Uncle told me I was to come over to Kilsby, he was going to wean the lambs, and I might take one back with me. I remember it well, he picked out a lamb; I had got a long cord with me, and he fastened it round the lamb’s neck, and he helped me through the first gate along the Ridge way. The lamb and I got on very well till we got to the next gate, but as soon as we got through it, by some means the lamb pulled the string out of my hand, and off it ran, and I after it. It was a long time before I caught it again, we were both glad after that to go quiet."
The Bracebridge memoirs have been transcribed in electronic format, and are available for those who would like to learn more of Kilsby as it was in those far-off days, and of the building of the railway and the Kilsby Railway Tunnel. For further details, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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